Improvements in various aspects of sporting equipment have been undertaken, such as increasing a sporting participant's visibility and safety, as well as easing the retrieval of equipment that may, in the course of a user's participation in a sport, become separated from the user. Being able to see and make visible sporting participants is essential in maintaining a safe and accident free environment, particularly when the sport activity is taking place in environments or situations when visibility is less than ideal. An example of such sporting equipment is includes snowboards. Snowboards have been a variation of snow skis for approximately the last fifteen years. The sport combines the skills of surfing with the skills of skiing and has become very popular in recent years.
A snowboard is generally a singular flat/substantially flat board with upwardly sloping tips at front and rear portions. The width of the board and the curve of the tips can vary. Typically, a user clamps boots into bindings that are firmly attached to the board so that the user is standing in a sideways/substantially sideways position with respect to the board, similar to the stance of a skate boarder or surfer to their skateboard or surfboard, respectively. There are variations for positioning a rider's feet, as known in the snowboarding art, such as bindings/mountings that vary in position from one another and even bindings that place a rider's feet parallel/substantially parallel to an axis substantially defined by the tips of the snowboard.
When snowboarding under adverse conditions such as dusk or night time or during a period of fog or snow, a person can find it difficult to see very far in front of the board and/or to be seen by others, thus increasing the risk of the person becoming injured by others and/or injuring themselves. In these situations it would be beneficial to have lighted sporting equipment that could help the user see ahead more clearly and/or make it easier for others to see the user.
Attempts to accomplish such results typically have included mounting a large, unwieldy and unsightly lamp, analogous to a headlamp utilized in various motor vehicles, in order to try and improve the visibility of/for the user. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,384.
Previously, various lighting assemblies and insets have been provided for various purposes. For example, an assembly is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,274 to De Backer et al, which is for airport runway guidance light apparatus. An embedded LED (light emitting diode) lighting system is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,714 to Rhodes. This patent provides a lighting system for marking flooring, walkways, roadways and airport runways. U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,906 to Lund teaches of a flush mounted visor light that is countersunk or flush mounted with an edge of a visor that is typically found on trucks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,575 to Groves discloses an LED array having a plurality of electrical conductive paths for each LED in the array. U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,213 to Holce teaches a universal illuminating mount assembly for wearing to enhance visibility, recognition and safety of a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,574 to Ochi, et al. teaches a retroreflective sheeting that is resistant to freezing and resists snow from sticking to the surface of the sheeting.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,746,499 and 6,104,140 to Ratcliffe et al. and Wut et al., respectively, teach of footwear having pulsed and motion activated illumination systems.
One of the main pressures that play a large role in the choosing of sporting equipment, particularly winter sporting equipment, is the impression or overall attractiveness of the equipment, as well as the practicality of the equipment. Senses of style and impression play a big role on the slopes, and bulky contraptions, as exemplified by the headlight of U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,384, are unlikely to be utilized by the public at large, particularly active young. This is because such configurations are large and obtrusive and may indeed interfere with the utility of the sporting equipment, thereby interfering with the balance and performance of the snowboard, not too mention not being aesthetically pleasing.